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Ignacio Hernandez, a spokesman for the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, called it “extreme overreaching” though he conceded the changes made for a “more balanced approach.”

In all, the bill increases penalties for 51 offenses, Fletcher said.

It would generally increase sentences for forcible sex crimes, require that the sex offenders’ risk assessment scores are listed on the state’s sex offender registry and require continued detention of mentally disordered offenders when evaluators tie in an assessment.

What else changed Tuesday?

Initially the bill called for lifetime parole for sex offenses against children under 14. With the changes, the worst offenders would get lifetime parole, but another group would be on parole for 20 years with a parole board option to retain them indefinitely, and lower level offenders would face 10-year parole terms.

As introduced, the bill banned sex offenders from entering parks. As amended, the ban becomes a parole requirement for all sex offenders on parole for 20 years or more.

In another major change Tuesday, the bill was modified to minimize the extra costs and the increase of incarcerated prisoners it would bring to California’s prison system.

It would change the law so that a charge of petty theft with a prior offense would go from being one that prosecutors have discretion to charge as a felony to a misdemeanor, punishable only by a year in county jail.

The provision would not apply to registered sex offenders or anyone with a prior violent or serious felony or three or more prior petty theft convictions.

The thinking is that the change would free up beds in prison over the long haul because there are more petty thieves in prison than sex offenders, and the thieves tend to have much shorter prison terms.

A spokesman for the ACLU, however, cast doubt on the analysis. “I remain honestly extremely perplexed how the change to the petty theft with a prior is going to approach paying for the cost, especially for the outer year costs with the bill.”

The state’s prison agency had estimated that the law would cost the state $54 million a year in 20 years.

Fletcher said the idea now is for the bill not only to be cost-neutral but also for the state to spend much less money managing sex offenders because of the introduction of the containment model and new risk assessment tool.